Rating: 
Summary: A touching story
Review: In the hands of a lesser writer, this book could have been way too saccharine and over-done. While I would not consider it a classic, I think Mitch Albom has done a fine job with this story. This is basically the story of Eddie,an elderly man who thinks his life has been meaningless. Eddie passes away and we get to see how his life really did have meaning and how he unknowingly touched those around him. Sort f like It's a Wonderful Life even though Jimmy Stewart didn't die in that one.I thought this book was well-written and very touching.I think that people have become so jaded that we can't always see the simple beauty in a story like this. You need to have an open mind and an open heart to really enjoy this book. I highly recommend it
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: I had been given a gift certificate and looked at everything for weeks. Nothing grabbed me. Nothing begged me to read it. And then one night I found this book. It sat on the shelf very innocent and yet there was something about it that made me just have to have it. And so my journey began.I was hooked from the moment I read the first chapter. All I wanted to do was read and find out more about Eddie and more about the people he touched. The premise of the book was very creative and Mr. Albom was able to pull it off with ease. Reading the book flowed much like the rides at the amusement park where Eddie worked. You see heaven and then a twist or a turn of the rollercoaster cart and you look at Eddie's birthdays. Amazing. But probably the most amazing thing about this book is the depth of such a simple life. This is a book that makes you think while you are reading it, but it goes way beyond that; it makes you think long after you have finished it. I feel a sense of connectedness that I did not feel before - hokey, maybe, but, nonetheless true. If you read nothing else this year, read this book. It surely will change your perspective on life and make you think.
Rating: 
Summary: I think I'll go to hell
Review: While easy-to-read and not poorly written, Mitch Albom's latest effort, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, is simply a twist on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and has a difficult time standing up against the classic. The main character, and deceased, Eddie, is initiated into heaven by visiting with five folks whose lives were touched or whose lives touched him. Strangers and loved ones alike appear to show Eddie the meaning of the life that he lived and to explain how we are all interconnected. Unfortunately, the tone of this book is spiritually stunted and although the book takes place in "heaven," Albom is not brave enough to identify Eddie's own spiritual identity and/or beliefs nor does the reader ever see or meet a divine creator or being. Instead, Albom hits the reader over the head with his earthly "insights" which are rote and predictable - be good, find joy, don't underestimate yourself, blah, blah, blah. Perhaps this would make a nice, short, morality play for pre-teens but it is not a book that will change anyone's life.
Rating: 
Summary: Something to Think About
Review: The book was an easy read but it didn't grab your attention. I was on vacation on a cruise and it was the only thing I had to read so it forced me to finish the book. It did give you something to think about. The book had more impact on be after I read it. It made me stop and think about all the people I come in contact and how unkowningly I touched their lives. I've read better books on this subject.
Rating: 
Summary: I WANT MY MONEY AND TIME BACK!
Review: Didn't love! I purchased this book to entertain me during my plane ride home --- ended up giving it to the woman sitting beside me. I found it to be extremely boring and unenlightening.
Rating:
Summary: A must read!!! Oprah, put this one on the list!!!!!!!
Review: Outstanding book! Beautifully written. For anyone who has "dogged" this book, you must have read something else! This is an excellent primise! It will really make you think! Once I started reading it, I couldnt put it down! I finished it in 4 days!
Rating:
Summary: Like a tasty vitamin
Review: Mitch Albom's new novel tries to be something that so many of the other genres (horror, mystery, science fiction) never try to be, and that's nourishing. Books like Five People are the kind of books that should be selling millions, not all these mass production thrillers. What I enjoyed most about this novel is the amount of respect each character is given. Each life or character described, all of them, are always introduced with sincerity, no matter what situation they are brought into, like war, or problems with alcohol. It's a shame that books like these are few and far between, for it strives to at least help answer questions, where the only medium that tries to answer questions now are self-help books, which offer too many answers in too many sugar coated ways. In short, this novel will hurt no one, for its sole purpose is to fulfill and satisfy the reader. With that being said, there are a couple mistakes in the novel.
First, we are introduced way too late to the wife of Eddie...the whole time we are supposed to suspend the idea that he loved her 'greatly', until finally, around page 150, we finally get to know her better. A relationship like that should be described in pages, not paragraphs. Also, there were times when the description of heavens, the different colors, for instance, were vague and too foreign to the rest of the subject matter.
But, to wrap it up, these are small things...there are always errors in a first novel, but it still shines bright and once finished, you'll feel as if you've swallowed a tasty vitamin, nourished and satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: inspiring book
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice change of pace & a new way of looking at your own life. I found it to be easy to read with serveral good ideas for quotes.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of expectation, did not deliver the goods
Review: Altho I loved Tuesdays with Morrie, this one left me feeling like there should have been more, more story, more fleshing out of characters, more rationale. Sure, cried at the end, but it left me wanting more than it gave.....
Rating:
Summary: A great little book
Review: Mitch Albom has done it again. He has put together a masterpiece. A man who has spent his entire life working on an amusemnet pier fixing the rides, died trying to save a small child from an accident. He wakes up in "heaven" and meets five people from his past. The five of them explain why his life has not been a total loss as he assumed that it was. The five people are all conected to him in some manner. Some of the five were very important in his life and some never met him, but were still connected. The main character Eddie meets everone in different settings that they consider "Heaven" and why they consider it "Heaven". The five of them explain various parts of his life and why things turned out like they did. The end of the book wraps up nicely and is a bit of a surprise. Mitch Albom has taken a very complex idea and explained his version of "heaven" in an easy to read style. The book never drags and it leaves you with a good feeling. Although it has religious connotations, it is not a book on relious beliefs. Any version of "heaven" can be used in place instead. Albom never lectures on beliefs, but instead focuses on Eddie and trying to answer why his life turned out like it did. Eddie represents everyone of us who ever thought about their life either not measuring up or being a failure. By showing Eddie his life through others eyes, he actually shows that the unimportant life is very important to at least a few and more likely many that we never even knew we affected. That is the true beauty of this book. Highly reccommended.
|
